Studio Update: A few weeks ago I was soliciting opinions about whether or not to get a Mac Mini to replace my ailing, nearly decade-old PC.
Opinions differed, leaning toward "yes but get more RAM than base model" and I had just about decided not to do it when I stumbled on a good video from a music tech vlogger I really like (video here: https://youtu.be/obkCMxaIIFM) who did exactly what I was thinking and had great results.
@etherdiver you can get better results with the same money and buy a used workstation desktop with more memory and a copy of Reaper. I recorded my jam with zoom recorder board and later edit it on desktop.
So, on the literal last day of the most recent sale (price was $499 but was going to return to base $599 price the following day) I went ahead and bought one from a place that gave me a 15 day return window on the purchase. I figured I'd test it thoroughly and, if it failed to live up to expectations, send it back.
That return window ended yesterday and folks, the Mac isn't going anywhere.
I didn't get to test it quite as thoroughly as I'd hoped but preliminary testing was incredibly positive. It runs #Ableton Live Suite 11 without a hitch, as well as #Pigments and the #Korg#Wavestation plugin, which is pretty much my entire computer setup.
(Note: I went #DAWlessright around the time Live 11 was released, and while my old computer's inability to run Live 11 well wasn't the reason why, it didn't exactly push me to stick with the DAW-based world.)
I ran a couple stress tests that just involved dumping multiple instances of plugins in and seeing what happens: it runs like a champ even with 8+ virtual instruments (including multiple instances of #Pigments, which is notoriously CPU-intensive, and multiple instances of Ableton's Wavetable instrument, which always brought my old PC to its knees), plus effects.
This got me kinda excited and I decided to port my current project into #Ableton from the #MPCOne and finish it there.
That process went really smoothly (in large part because the #MPC has an "Export to Ableton Live set" option) apart from the bumps that come along with relearning a new version of a complex software package you haven't used in 3+ years. It took about two days to get all the tracks moved over and setup to a basic level. And in my more real-world scenarios I'm still finding the the Mini can handle the task admirably.
Coming from the inherently limited MPC platform has my expectations and workflow tuned to minimalism, but still!
The Mac Mini also handles my daily web browsing and YouTube watching tasks fine, still accesses Google Docs/Sheets just fine, etc. 8 gigs of RAM runs just fine, TBH! I may hit the wall with it at some point, but if I can get 3-5 years of use out of it before that happens, it'll be worth it.
I did add a couple terabytes of external storage (much more cheaply than Apple's internal options), a fancy hub and a cheap wireless mouse (already had a cheap but reasonable Logitech Bluetooth keyboard I bought a couple years ago to use with my iPad). That all added about $300 to the total cost (or about as much as the upgrade to 16 gb RAM would have cost, but that would still have left me with just 256gb storage, no hub, etc).
Was also randomly able to trade a bunch of used #cassettes locally for a new #monitor (which gave me the one big pain in the ass part of the upgrade; had a refresh speed mismatch that took me an hour or so to puzzle out), so I also have a newer, bigger monitor.
Still porting/backing up all my files from my old PC to my collection of hard drives and new #SSD storage, but otherwise have retired the old warhorse. Planning on cleaning it up and doing some minor repairs/upgrades...some day.
But, back to #music stuff! #Production is going great with the new setup. Switching platforms has kick-started my inspiration and I'm getting more done with this collection of tracks than I have since the first few months of the project, almost a full year ago. Really beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I think this will be done and ready to move to mixing/mastering by mid-May/early June. So maybe a late June or early July release? Hard to say for sure, but feels about right.
Thanks to everyone that offered advice/shared their experience. Extra special thanks to everyone here in Mastodon who bought my old #TTRPG stuff and #DVDs and #Videogame collectibles to fund the extra bits I needed to buy; this would have been a lot more painful if I had to spend "real" money (i.e. money that would otherwise go to feed and house my family) on it.
@dave_heumann seems like! I tell ya, it was the video I linked in that first post that convinced me. I've followed that guy for a year or so and generally agree/trust his conclusions (we use similar gear/workflow), so that put me at ease in a big way. That, and the fact that I could try it for 2 weeks out be over the top. So far, no ragrets!
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